(Motorsport-Total.com) – Lewis Hamilton seems to have finally arrived in his second year at Ferrari: The Brit even celebrated his first victory in Barcelona and spent the four-week summer break as the closest pursuer of leader Kimi Antonelli in second place. And yet there is criticism of the Scuderia’s first half of the season.
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Former Formula 1 driver Jolyon Palmer believes that both Ferrari and Hamilton have made “pretty sloppy” mistakes this season – especially at the British Grand Prix in Silverstone. There, the Brit lost his second place to Mercedes driver George Russell because he came in for a pit stop again during the last safety car phase.
“Ferrari just has to keep the pressure on and see what happens. But I have been a bit disappointed with them in the last races because I think they got this chance due to some reliability issues with Kimi,” Palmer explained in the podcast F1 Nation with host Tom Clarkson.
Actually, Kimi Antonelli already looked like the possible winner in Silverstone when a defect struck his Mercedes. “The thing with the wheel cover in Silverstone was a real stroke of luck for Ferrari. They would have lost this race, and in the end, they still got through and made up a large part of Kimi’s lead.”
Lewis Hamilton is driving “brilliantly” at Ferrari this year, but …
“And then they get all these penalties,” the former Formula 1 driver thinks that the Scuderia has already dropped some championship points. “There you have Lewis’s jump start in Silverstone, just because he moved his hand a fraction too quickly. That’s pretty sloppy. Then he activates the pit lane speed limiter a fraction too early in Hungary.”
“It’s hard to deny that this isn’t pretty sloppy,” the expert makes clear. “And then you probably have the biggest mistake of all: the obstruction penalty in Hungary. My goodness, that’s so sloppy from the race engineer at that moment and maybe a little bit from Lewis too.”
“These three penalties of course cost them some points, but also a bit of momentum and a bit of that pressure on Kimi. So they have to stop such things.” Although Palmer believes that Hamilton is “driving brilliantly” this season, he may be lacking the necessary concentration.
“That he is often on par with Charles in terms of pace or even ahead of him shows what a great turnaround that has been,” says the former Formula 1 driver looking back at last year, when Hamilton was still clearly in the shadow of his teammate Charles Leclerc in his debut season at Ferrari.
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Palmer sees “lack of concentration or attention” in Hamilton
“It’s really difficult to compare that with his glory years at Mercedes; the competition is so different. The environment is so different. I think we are currently seeing some of the best performances he has ever shown. That’s why these unnecessary penalties frustrate me, because his driving level is exceptionally high at the moment.”
“He has adapted really well to this regulation and the opportunity presented to him,” Palmer adds. “But these mistakes have nothing to do with driving skill. That’s the absurd part. It’s more a kind of lack of concentration or attention – I don’t know – on his part and the race engineer’s. And they have simply let themselves down with it.”
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For the rest of the season, the 35-year-old Brit has little hope if his attitude does not change. “If Ferrari wants to win this championship – we talked earlier about team orders and that they have to maximize every single point – then they are still quite a way off in the last few races.”
Charles Leclerc admits: “Could have done better work”
In fact, Ferrari itself knows that not everything has gone smoothly recently. “Looking back at the weekend [in Hungary], we as a team could certainly have done better work in this regard,” Leclerc admits ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix (all sessions in live ticker!).
“Especially in a year like this, execution is crucial – in my opinion more important than ever. Of course, execution is always important, but this year even small mistakes, such as in programming or similar processes during the race weekend, have enormous effects,” adds the Monegasque, who has one season win to his name but 31 fewer championship points than Hamilton.
“So in a season like this, we absolutely have to act perfectly. When analyzing the first half of the season, it was noticeable – and this applies to all teams – that many points were dropped in the end; every team lost points,” says Leclerc. “This is mainly because optimizing these cars is extremely complex. For us, this is definitely a central focus for the second half of the season.”
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